CureMode

Try looking at Tony Barnett's page. I bought the Venacava Designs Kit and bought additional snaps and straps from Walmart as I needed them. The pliers really help and his tutorial is great. I used snaps for everything except the back of the Calves and Thighs, and the Shoulder straps. http://www.tonybarnett.plus.com/snaps.html

6 - Getting to meet "famous" folks like Weird Al. 5 - Being a much cooler geek than the dad down the street. 4 - Free Movies and Cons. 3 - Free Popcorn and Soda. 2 - Teaching kids Blasters can be your friend. 1 - Helping kids in need.

Here's my Elite ANH Hero setup. Spent the past year tweaking my Armor and getting a new helmet. I replaced the FX shoulder bells and biceps as well, and added a Commlink and Grappling Hook. Thanks to Evo and VacTrooper for the Grapple and box, I have had a lot of very positive feedback about them and how accurate they are. Same with the Latex hand guards from R2Dan, they are a pain, you have to repaint them after every troop, but that's how they really were for the heros. These were taken by Phillip Moy from my garrison (ECG) and he did a fantastic job. I used the first shot for my photo for the rotating featured costume section on the 501st main page. ------

I did mine hero.. the ears can line up pretty well. I like the minimal frown, and the bubble lenses. I have to say you can't see well out of them at all, especially in mine. I added an extra lens layer to make them darker so you can't see in at all, but in low light I am blind, not to mention the warping effect.

I used the snap Stormtrooper kit from the UK... ----------- Recommended by Tony Barnett's tutorial... http://www.tonybarnett.plus.com/snaps.html The tool works great and Tony's guide gives you all the steps. The only thing I didn't do was the extra belt thing for the thighs, I just connected them to the back of the ab plate with and elastic strip and snaps. You can get additional stretchy material in black, white ribbon for the ammo boxes, and additional Heavy Duty Snaps at Wal-Mart in the fabric dept. Snaps are the way to go for most of the interconnections. With the pliers in the kit I never had a problem with the male snaps not being flush on the abs strips I was using. Just one tip, always pre-punch the hole in the straps with the tool, it prevents the snaps from pulling through the fabric, and double up where possible. In a few spots I was able to wrap the elastic around the snap head before securing it. I had to use the hammer method in a few spots where I put the snaps directly in the armor and it was tough to get it right.

There is a guy (piratetrooper) on ebay selling Flexible HIPS armor. Don't know who he is or where his stuff came from, any info? Ebay Link

I caught some of it on Spike too, and it was the first time I noticed the trooper in ESB with the right shoulder bell completely fallen off and hanging on his elbow, when they lead Han into the carbonite chamber. If they could fix Han's vest in that scene in the "Special Edition", why didn't they correct that?

I am trooping a Regal Cinema Saturday from 12-2pm in Brooklyn NY. Its for the Puppetry Arts Theater, who do activities for underprivileged kids in the area, Regal is sponsoring the even in the lobby. I am bringing the wife and kids, they can see a movie there, while I do my thing. Later we are all going to see the band Harry and the Potters at the Bell House in Brooklyn. We all love the band, they sing songs about the Harry Potter universe, as if they were Harry Potter. Coincidentally, this will be their 501st show.

I did the mod without any resistor and it seems to work fine if done like this (notice the red wire in the lower left). For me its been working fine for over 6 months and it amplifies my Radio Shack PC non-powered Mic.

Definitely MR CEs. They must be 501st, they both had TK numbers on their shoulders. I would love to know how they got that gig. They tell him a "There's a UFO Convention is in town.." , come on they couldn't say Star Wars / Sci-Fi Convention for goodness sake...

That's pretty darn impressive for a 16 year old, I'd say its better than any of the rubies. You must have been a handy and resourceful kid.

Looks great Skutch, we have to compare notes. Why would you want to keep such a great set of armor secret?

I found these on ebay for $7 shipped.. They don't have a visible logo, and they have a dimple texture on the palms. They have worked out really well so far and they are pretty accurate. I was using some lycra diving gloves, which are great in the cold, but when its hot and you sweat in them they get a bit funky, if you know what I mean. I do wash them but it got to be a pain having to do that after almost every troop. With the rubber ones you just rinse them out and your ready to go. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...N:IT&ih=023

Here is Stomper... No matter how much he crys, no matter how much he begs, never ever feed him after 9PM... or you will get this...

I swear by SlimFast and Wii Fit since using them for the past 6 months to lose almost 40 lbs. I am 37, 5'11", and had went from around 150lbs to almost 185lbs over the past 10 years. I joined the 501st back in April, and felt uncomfortable and a bit squashed in my armor. I am not much of a dieter, and I don't exercise very much, so since getting married and having twin girls, I slowly started getting overweight, especially in the gut. I started using SlimFast shakes for breakfast and lunch everyday with only occasional exceptions. The funny thing is I never used to eat breakfast at all, but I read an article about how it is a critical meal, and if you skip it you end up overeating for lunch. I would then eat a balanced dinner, with a reasonable portion. I stopped eating chips and having large bowls of Ice Cream every night (what was I thinking), and I just have one Italian Ice for a dessert. At first it was a bit difficult, I was getting a bit hungry about mid day, but I managed to stick with it. It also actually saved me a bundle, I was spending $5-$7 on lunch everyday, and the shakes are only about $1.25. I also saved on all the junk food and Ice Cream. I also tried to exercise a bit more with some situps, and some additional walking. In my building at work there was a back parking lot, just a 30 sec walk from my office. I started parking on the opposite side of the building so I would get a good 8 minute walk each way (its a big building). I also got the Wii Fit pad, and I tried to use it 3-4 times a week for 20 minutes. I really think that also helps you get a good balanced work out, without too much hassle, and the games are fun. It also tracks your progress with body tests, so you know exactly how much weight your losing and it has cool graphs to show your progress. I am now actually about 4lbs below my original goal of getting back to 150lbs, so I only eat one SlimFast for Breakfast and I try to have a reasonable lunch and a balanced dinner. I keep up with the exercise, and track my weight with the Wii Fit to keep it in that range. I have had to trim and adjust my armor three times as the weight came off, so I have to maintain it now. My wife still can't believe it, she had been bugging me for years to eat better and exercise, and I never did it. It took the 501st to give me the proper motivation, fitting into my armor better.

I used ABS cement on the front, then Industrial Velcro on the backs, and they stay closed. I use the full wide strip down the entire length, its sometimes hard to get them apart actually. Industrial Velcro comes in white and black and is 2x as wide as regular Velcro and in my opinion at least 2 x as strong, especially sideways holding. Also the glue on the strips is much stronger. One other tip I learned the hard way, when cementing the seam down the front use blue painter's tape to tape off the front face right next to the ridge on the thigh. This way if some on the glue squishes out, or you mislay it over the other one, it doesn't get glue on the front. I started doing that when cementing all my parts.

Just emailed you, way too slow....

I wish they had have taken more care with this, instead more overpriced crap from Rubies. I thought the eyes in the helmet looked more like bulldog eyes. ----------

Shoot I'm sorry.. Thought it was within 30 mins...

Its a Radial Engine Cylinder part from a model Airplane used to make the ComLink used in ANH by Luke. the ComLink is also known as a SoroSuub C1 Personal Comlink, the C-3PO one is different from the one Luke has and looks more like it has O-Rings on the side. Both have a Hovi-Mic tip. Here's a replica of the C-3PO version...

You can use a non powered mic with the Radioshack amp with one minor modification to the amp. You have to jump the power to the Mic lead so that the Mic is powered by the Amp. Otherwise you have to use a powered Mic with the Radioshack Amp. Here is a photo of where I did the jump, notice the small red jump wire on the lower left, and where it is soldered. Thanks to my ECG mate, Eric Seeman who showed me this trick. -----------

I have tried some dive mask anti-fog drops I got at a Scuba shop. It works pretty well but it leaves a kinda oily film on the lenses. I also tried a spray on solution called liquid spit, and that seemed to work as well. However with both of these you seem to need to re-apply them each time you use the helmet.

I bought this exact helmet 4 months ago. I was not happy with it, it was poorly painted, it had very washed out features (due to it being a recast), the lenses were way too light, it had a sloppy polyurethane coating that had drip marks in spots, and the mic tips were total crap. Also it was not screen accurate, its idealized not wonky, and the guys here identified mine as a possible RT-Mod 2 recast. I complained to the guy and he ended up giving me a $20 refund. I also learned why Fiberglass may not be the best material for an "everyday" helmet. The helmet has developed some hairline cracks on the face part and around the edges, that are irreparable unless I wanted to repaint and sand the whole damn thing. I ordered a really nice ABS helmet kit from Tray, I am working on that right now for use while trooping. Get ABS right off the bat, it cost the same if you can do some of the work yourself, and you will be much happier with it. Here is a shot of my fiberglass one...

I use that exact GigaWare PC Mic from Radioshack ($12.99) and it works great. You can use it with the Radioshack amp with one minor modification to the amp. You have to jump the power to the Mic lead so that the Mic is powered by the Amp. Otherwise you have to use a powered Mic with the Radioshack Amp. Here is a photo of where I did the jump, notice the small red jump wire on the lower left, and where it is soldered. Thanks to my ECG mate, Eric Seeman who showed me this trick. -------

Here's my favorite stuff... Older Core Alternative Stuff... The Cure and Depeche Mode (Obviously) The Smiths / Morrissey Joy Division / New Order Stereolab NIN Echo and The Bunnymen Bettie Serveert Throwing Muses Pulp The Stone Roses Bauhaus The Pixies The Psychedelic Furs The Swirlies Radiohead Siouxsie and the Banshees Lush Curve The Wedding Present Th' Faith Healers The Jesus and Mary Chain Newer Stuff... Interpol Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Stellastarr Electrelane The Strokes Say Hi to Your Mom The Radio Department The Editors The Kaiser Chiefs Autolux Bloc Party Broadcast Pedro the Lion / David Bazan British Sea Power The Apples in Stereo I found a lot of these newer bands using a free custom radio station called Pandora.com. You put in all the Bands you like and it plays stuff that's similar. It also lets you mark whether you liked the selection or not, and if not you can skip to the next one. I've found almost all the newer bands I like using Pandora over the past 5 years.